


Biting My Tongue

by casey-bee (vands88)



Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: 221B Ficlet, Character Study, Friendship, M/M, Military, Other, Wordcount: 100-1.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-17
Updated: 2011-05-17
Packaged: 2017-10-21 19:52:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/229109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vands88/pseuds/casey-bee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There is a word John Watson won't allow himself to say.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Biting My Tongue

**Author's Note:**

> (sorry forgot to import this from [LJ](http://casey-bee.livejournal.com/315611.html))
> 
> So apparently there's this thing in Sherlock fandom where you write a 221-word length story and the last word has to begin with 'b'...? Well, I thought I'd give it a go.

~

John nearly called Sherlock, "sir", when he had first met him.

The word was drilled into him in the Army; it was how you addressed men above you, people you respected, and you got an earful for it if you forgot. Even when John was patching up a dying General in a grubby tent in the corner of an Afghan camp, the word "sir" prefaced every sentence.

So upon meeting Sherlock - the impressive, unique, wonderfully insane consulting detective who paraded around London like he owned the place – it took John a while to control the reflex. It didn’t help when Sherlock purposefully ordered him around. John had to take extra care to say, "bugger off" when Sherlock demanded his phone instead of the, "yes sir, right away sir" that he had keyed into his mind.

It was as if Sherlock knew that he was exceedingly brilliant and actually _could_ make unreasonable demands that John would automatically want to obey. Sherlock played everyone around him like a master puppeteer and he had obviously deduced (probably within the first twenty seconds of meeting John, the crafty git) that this certain Army doctor would follow him through streets, crime scenes and explosions if he gave him a chance.

John did follow, and remembered to bite his tongue at the "sir" after every brilliance.

~


End file.
